the Trials of the Lady of the Forbidden Forest
by GypsyFyre
Summary: AU, older generation fic. Start has lots of Trio, but mainly focusing on Oliver Wood, OFC, and the Weasley Twins. There are many secrets in the Department of Mysteries. Maybe one of them is the identity of the mysterious girl raised at Hogwarts. Ratin
1. The rumors

A/N: This is my first full length fic and I've been thinking about how to write it for awhile now, so bear with me, please! This all takes place in AU after/during the second book. Though there is a reference to an AU instance that I added into the first book, as a background bit. Generally, all important events happen the same and I will mention some of them briefly, but assume that you know what's going on Trio-wise.  
  
"If the threat to the school comes from the Forbidden Forest, she will be able to tell, and I'm sure she'll be able to help us." Dumbledore was speaking in low tones to Professor McGonagall, trying to be careful not to pique the interest of too many nearby students; especially not the curious Trio over in the corner there.  
  
"What if she refuses to help? She's not one to easily forgive, Albus. We all know that, we all raised her." McGonagall couldn't free herself from the image she had of the slight but extremely powerful girl she remembered and hadn't seen for a year. Not since she had lost her temper and fled the Great Hall, leaving her friends and her planned future to find a place of her own. A place that seemed to reside in the power granted to her by a place where wild magic was free and dangerous beings weren't the only things that could destroy the unwary.  
  
"She'll come." Dumbledore walked away after ending the conversation with the air of a person who had seen into the future and knew that there was nothing that could prevent what would come, when the future arrived in the present.  
  
************************************************************************ "What do you think they were talking about?" It took mere seconds for Ron to excitedly begin the investigation into something they weren't supposed to know.  
  
"I don't know. It must have to do with the Chamber of Secrets. Do you think they know what's doing it?" Harry was excitedly returning his friends fervor in the investigation.  
  
A not so subtle noise of disgust echoed from the third member of the party as she pretended to be not at all interested in what was going on with Dumbledore and McGonagall and continued her reading on their most recent homework assignment; and no little amount of research on the Chamber of Secrets. "Obviously they don't know what's going on, or they would fix it." The haughty voice began, "Dumbledore seems like he must have a contact of some sort, someone in the Forbidden Forest who he's trying to ask for help."  
  
"Who could it be?" Ron was screwing his face up in confusion, trying to think of someone daft enough to stay in the Forbidden Forest.  
  
"We don't know that, but I'm sure we'll find out before too long, if that conversation points to anything." Harry was matter of fact in his analysis. He didn't know how close they were to meeting the mysterious figure, but he did have a vague memory of a guess as to who it might be. Back in First Year, in the Forbidden Forest:  
Fang and Draco ran as quickly as they could in hopes of escaping the dark and sinister figure hunched over the still, white form of the bloodied Unicorn. Harry stood rooted to the spot as the slithering black cloaked figure moved towards him. Suddenly he tripped and fell back into the roots of the tree behind him. As his eyes remained glued to the figure in front of him, he heard a call and saw the figure of a horse leap over him.  
Harry lifted his eyes to watch the confrontation between the two beings and it was a moment before he noticed the other figure present in that dark grove. The girl's eyes and hair appeared black, her pale skin seeming pearlescent against the white of her simple dress. She looked directly at him with an intense gaze and a disconcerting twist of her mouth. She turned abrubtly towards the other intruder into her wood and hissed. Harry didn't realize until later that he knew what she had said.  
"This is my place you invade. You are not welcome here. Go!"  
She turned and for a moment, Harry knew that the words had been meant for him as well as he met her sharp gaze before she was carried away by the darkness of the Forest. Harry had tried quickly to get up and away from this place when the Centaur spoke to him. He still remembered the girl as well as anything that happened that night. For some reason, she seemed a haunting image to him. One crazy enough, and powerful enough, to stay in the Forbidden Forest.  
  
"Harry?" Hermione was waving her hand in front of Harry's distracted face. "Harry, you there?" she stopped trying to obtain his attention as Harry's eyes seemed to wake up and he turned to look at her. "Should we go to the Great Hall for dinner? Ron's getting ravenous and I'm starting to wonder if he's planning to eat his book, since he doesn't want to do his homework." Hermione's voice was subtly amused as both turned to look at Ron who seemed to have unconsciously taken to chewing on his nails and quill in rotation and his jaw seemed, in fact, to be moving ominously towards his book and the scroll he was writing on. Both laughed, which turned nearly hysterical with the look Ron gave them when he looked up and closed his book. With a piercing glare by Madam Pince, the three fled the library to head to the Great Hall for dinner.  
  
A/N: I know this is really short and I have to say that I'm testing the waters here, I guess. Please review and let me know if I should keep going (which I'm sure I will at least for a bit). Just as a warning, in my head, this thing spans years! So it will be a while before it's finished, and I may just divide it into different fics in the end. Okay, once again! Let me know! 


	2. The Lady

A/N: Okay, I know it's been a really long time since I started this, and I haven't heard anything from anyone who was reading it, but still, I'm plot bunnying all over the place, and I may as well take the time to add to this one too. I still don't own anything. Not even the books actually...  
  
The Lady:  
  
After dinner, the Trio return to their common room, still deep in conversation about what might be going on with the Chamber of Secrets, and what the teachers might have planned. They also tried to get in a bit of homework... if it was convenient to the more interesting subject they already had.  
  
It was late when they heard the noises coming from below them on the grounds, through the window opened for the warm night. When they went to look, they saw a gathering of teachers who looked to be searching the Forbidden Forest for some sort of signal.  
  
It was only a quick look that told the three that they had to go join that group. Without a word, Harry went to gather his invisibility cloak, but he didn't use it now, as other students seemed to be moving towards the teachers as well.  
  
************************************************************************ Dumbledore knew the teachers and staff hadn't been nearly discreet enough to persuade students that nothing was going on in the grounds of Hogwarts that night. He also knew that no difference would be made... she had sent him a note saying that if she agreed to help him, she would be back on the Hogwarts grounds by midnight that night.  
  
The staff of Hogwarts waited patiently, as any parent hoping a wayward child will return to them. The girl they were waiting for had been raised here. She had been a part of a family at Hogwarts, the one student that was truly theirs, the child they didn't have to send home at the end of the year, she was home.  
  
And she was home.  
  
As the clock struck midnight, Firenze came bolting out of the forest with a girl in a pristine white dress clinging to him. Some of the older students gasped, knowing that centaurs were not to be ridden, but this girl, whom they had known, had always defied the rules anyway, and Firenze had no problem as he came to a halt, bowed to Dumbledore and let the girl dismount.  
  
The small teenager with waist length black-red hair and luminescent light skin turned to Firenze and hugged him.  
  
"Thank you, my friend. I know I wouldn't have been on time if you hadn't helped." Then, shyly she added, "I'll miss you. Don't forget me, alright?" Firenze smiled benevolently at the girl, he kissed her on the forehead before retreating back into the forest saying, "We won't forget you child. After all, it is you who will remind us all of what we are. Goodbye for now, and be well Katie."  
  
The girl then turned back to Dumbledore, looking to be ages older than her fifteen years. "I have returned... and what I know, what I can, I will do to help." She and Dumbledore nodded to each other and the serious atmosphere was held for a brief moment before two human sized blurs came crashing into the young woman.  
  
"Kate!!! You should have told us earlier you'd be back" Fred Weasley had the girl, who now looked as any other homecoming teenager might, in his arms with a hug so tight her feet no longer reached the ground.  
  
"We could have organized a proper welcome! We've come up with some great new things since you were last here." Fred handed the laughing girl over to his brother George for the same treatment.  
  
"Can't wait. You'll never guess some of the things Magpie taught me how to do!" The three then moved into deep conversation as they bypassed most of the shocked crowd on their way back to the castle.  
  
About half way there, they were interrupted, when Snape approached. Leading the rest of the students to wonder what new development would come from this, in an night of surprises. The group was stopped short as he stepped in front of them to address the girl, who, to much surprise, looked back up at him with a small smile on her face and obvious happiness to see him again.  
  
"Katherine. We're all very glad to have you back." At this admittance she smiled. "I only wished to let you know that you will be staying in one of the rooms off the Slytherin dungeon, and you don't have to dress according to code, since you're not an enrolled student, but your Slytherin robes should be worn, if you will." She smiled again, and to the shock of most people there, reached up to hug the cold potions master.  
  
"Thanks, Severus, I'm sure I'll see you tomorrow then." And she waved at him as she left.  
  
As if nothing were unusual, the three friends went back to discussing jokes and what they had been up to in the last year, while the many shocked people they left behind followed after, with a dazed wondering of what would happen tomorrow.  
  
A/N: Okay, not long, I know, but it's what I've got for now. Please let me know if you're reading this and if there's anything you'd like to suggest! Later! 


End file.
